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Oracle® Enterprise Manager Cloud Control Administrator's Guide
12c Release 1 (12.1.0.2)

Part Number E24473-16
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11 Configuring a Software Library

This chapter describes how to configure a new Software Library, the various users and the privileges required to access the Software Library, and finally how to maintain an existing Software Library in the Enterprise Manager Cloud Control environment.

In particular, this chapter covers the following:

11.1 Overview of Software Library

Oracle Software Library (Software Library) is one of the core features offered by Enterprise Manager Cloud Control. Technically, it is a repository that stores software entities such as software patches, virtual appliance images, reference gold images, application software, and their associated directive scripts. In addition to storing them, it also enables you to maintain versions, maturity levels, and states of these software entities.

To access the Software Library console page, from the Enterprise menu, select Provisioning and Patching, then click Software Library. On the Software Library home page, as shown in Figure 11-1, there are two types of folders: Oracle-owned folders (marked by a lock symbol) and User-owned folders.

Oracle-owned folders and their contents (including other subfolders and entities) ship with the product by default, and appear on the Software Library home page after Software Library is configured. User-owned folders are logical top level folders that the user creates to organize the entities that he/she intends to create.

Figure 11-1 Software Library Console

Surrounding text describes Figure 11-1 .

The Software Library Page is centralized media storage for all Enterprise Manager entities. For example,

Advantages:

From the Software Library Console page, you can perform the following tasks:

11.2 Users, Roles, and Privileges

Software Library folders and entities that ship with the product, by default are viewable by all the Enterprise Manager users. Fine grained privileges provide a way to control user access to the different entities in the Software Library. Administrator by default do not have any Software Library privileges, it is for the Super Administrator, to grant access, privileges to an Administrator.

Note:

To run the procedure on a Windows host which involves executing some Software Library entities (for example, directive scripts), you (the Windows user) must be granted the following privileges:
  • Act as part of the operating system

  • Adjust memory quotas for a process

  • Logon as batch job

  • Replace a process level token

If not, the execution of the directive steps in the procedure may fail.

Software Library users roles can be broadly classified as:

Any Enterprise Manager user requires, at the very least, a view privilege on an entity for the entity to be visible on the Software Library Home page. Users will not be able to see this entity till the Super Administrator grants them at least a view privilege on the entity.

Note:

All the folders and entities that ship with the product also known as the Oracle-owned entities, by default are viewable by all the Enterprise Manager users.

Administrator by default do not have any Software Library privileges, it is for the Super Administrator, to grant access, privileges to an Administrator. Table 11-1 describes all the available Software Library privileges that can be granted to a user or role.

Users and roles can be granted privileges on specific entities by the owner of the entity or the Super Administrator. For more details, see Oracle Enterprise Manager Administrator's Guide for Software and Server Provisioning and Patching.

Table 11-1 Software Library Privileges for Administrators

Resource Type Description

View any Template Entity

Ability to view any Template Entity

Export Any Software Library Entity

Ability to export any Software entity

Edit any Software Library Entity

Ability to edit any Software Library entity

Manage Any Software Library Entity

Ability to create, view, edit, and delete any Software Library entity

Import Any Software Library Entity

Ability to import any Software Library entity

Create Any Software Library Entity

Ability to create any Software Library entity

View Any Software Library Entity

Ability to view any Software Library entity

View Any Assembly Entity

Ability to view any Assembly entity

Grant Any Entity Privilege

Ability to grant view, edit, and delete privileges on any Software Library entity.This privilege is required if the user granting the privilege on any entity is not a Super Administrator or owner of the entity.


Table 11-2 describes all the primary users of Software Library, and their associated privileges:

Table 11-2 Roles and Privileges

Role Software Library Privileges

Super Administrator

All Software Library Privileges

EM_PROVISIONING_DESIGNER (Designer)

Create Any Software Library Entity

EM_PROVISIONING_OPERATOR (Operator)

View Any Software Library Entity

EM_PATCH_OPERATOR

Create Any Software Library Entity

View Any Software Library Entity

EM_USER (Administrator)

Access Enterprise Manager


Super Administrators have complete privileges on all the entities present in Software Library, and can exercise access control on the entities by granting one or more privileges, and later revoking the previously granted privilege to another user or role.

Designers by default are given create privileges, which allow them to create entities and manage them.

Operators by default are given view privileges, which allow them to view all the entities in Enterprise Manager Cloud Control.

Any Enterprise Manager user requires, at the very least, a view privilege on an entity for the entity to be visible on the Software Library console. The Super Administrator can choose to grant additional privileges described in Table 11-1 to the user or role. Users will not be able to see this entity till the Super Administrator grants them at least a view privilege on the entity.

11.3 Performing Software Library Tasks Using EM CLI Verbs or in Graphical Mode

Starting with Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 12c Release 2 (12.1.0.2), command line utility has been introduced for Software Library users in Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control that enables you to perform some of the console-based Software Library operations using the text-based consoles.

The following table describes both approaches to perform some of the Software Library tasks:

Note:

For more information about the syntax and usage of the EM CLI verbs described in Table 11-3, refer to Oracle Enterprise Manager Lifecycle Management Administrator's Guide.

Table 11-3 Software Library EMCLI Verbs

Description Approach A: Using EM CLI Verb Approach B: Using Enterprise Manager Cloud Control Console

Adding a Software Library storage location

add_swlib_storage_location

Configuring an OMS Shared Filesystem Location

Configuring an OMS Agent Filesystem Location

Configuring a Referenced File Location

Creating a Software Library entity

create_swlib_entity

Creating Generic Components

Creating Directives

Creating a Software Library folder

create_swlib_folder

Organizing Entities

Listing the Software Library entities

list_swlib_entities

Accessing Software Library Home Page

Searching Entities

Listing Software Library entity types

list_swlib_entity_types

NA

Listing Software Library entity subtypes

list_swlib_entity_subtypes

NA

Listing Software Library folders

list_swlib_folders

NA

List Software Library storage locations

list_swlib_storage_locations

Accessing Software Library Administration Page

Referring files from a Software Library entity

refer_swlib_entity_files

Creating Entities

Viewing, Editing, and Deleting Entities

Re-Importing Software Library metadata

reimport_swlib_metadata

Re-Importing Oracle Owned Entity Files

Removing a Software Library storage location

remove_swlib_storage_location

Deleting Software Library Storage Location

Modifying a Software Library entity

update_swlib_entity

Viewing, Editing, and Deleting Entities

Uploading files to a Software Library entity

upload_swlib_entity_files

Creating Entities

Viewing, Editing, and Deleting Entities


11.4 Software Library Storage

The Software Library Administration console allows you to configure and administer Software Library. To start using the Software Library, you must add at least one upload file storage location (OMS Shared location, or OMS Agent location) on the host where the OMS is running. A storage location in Software Library represents a repository of files, these files are either uploaded by Software Library, or generated and saved by some user-owned process.

Note:

If you choose to newly configure an OMS Shared Storage Location, then ensure that the file system path that you specify for the location is either a shared path or a mounted path. By doing so, the newly configured location can be made accessible in a multiple OMS environment in the future. If the new location is being added in a multiple OMS environment, then the file system path should be accessible from all the OMS hosts.

However, if you have configured the OMS Shared Storage Location on a local file system, then perform the steps listed in the Section 11.7 to migrate this location to another OMS Shared Storage Location that has a shared or mounted path.

To access the administration console, log into Enterprise Manager Cloud Control with Administration access, and follow these steps:

In Cloud Control, from Setup menu, select Provisioning and Patching, and then click Software Library.

OR

In Cloud Control, from the Enterprise menu, select Provisioning and Patching and then, click Software Library. On the Software Library home page, from Actions menu, select Administration.

Figure 11-2 Software Library Administration

Software Library: Administration

The Software Library Administration Page as shown in Figure 11-2 is a GUI based screen, that enables you to create one or more storage locations to store or refer to files that are associated with an entity. To view the entities present in the storage location, click show on the Administration page. You can create a storage location on the OMS or the agent running on the same host as the OMS. With Enterprise Manager 12c, a new feature called Referenced File Location has been introduced, wherein Software Library entities can refer to files that are stored on another host. These locations are however read-only for Software Library, will not be used for uploading files.

The space requirements for configuring Software Library depends on the amount of space required for storing the software binaries, and its associated scripts. Understandably, this space requirement increases over a period of time as you create more entities. Depending on the features or software required for provisioning and patching, you must decide and configure the Software Library storage space.

Note:

For production environments, Oracle recommends allocating a minimum 100GB of storage for your software library. Also, ensure that this storage can easily be extended in future, if it starts running out of space.

Once the storage location starts running out of space, it is important to deactivate the configured storage location so that no new uploads can happen to this location. For more information about removing a storage location, see Section 11.10

The following types of storage locations are available:

11.4.1 Upload File Locations

Upload File Locations are locations configured for storing files uploaded by Software Library as part of creating or updating an entity.

Note:

If you wan to physically delete a file system configured as an Upload storage location with Software Library, then you must ensure that you first configure an alternate storage location where you can migrate the existing contents (entities). If you fail to perform this migration, then the entities dependent on the files from this location will be rendered unusable. For more information about deleting a storage location, and migrating the contents, see Section 11.10.3.

Note:

For Software Library to become usable, at least one upload file location must be configured. On adding the first upload file location, a job is submitted to import the Software Library metadata from the Oracle home of each of the installed Enterprise Manager plug-in. Ensure that you wait for this job to complete successfully, before performing other patching or provisioning operations.

As a prerequisite, before using Upload File Locations as storage option, you must set credentials for using an OMS Shared File System or OMS Agent File System:

  • For multiple OMS environment, all the OMS hosts must have a preferred normal host credential set.

    Note:

    When OMS instances are added, it is necessary to ensure that the configured locations are accessible from the designated host where the new OMS will be provisioned.

    For an OMS that will be provisioned using the Add Management Service functionality, the shared location configured as upload location should be mounted on the designated host, and verified manually.

  • For OMS Agent File System location configuration, a credential (preferred or named) has to be specified.

Note:

Oracle recommends using OMS Shared File System location for Software Library storage. The OMS Agent File System storage should be used only for exceptional cases like multi-OMS setup on Windows. For multi-OMS setup in Windows, it is recommended to have OCFS2 cluster file system on the OMS hosts, and an OMS Shared File System storage location configured.

Upload File Locations support two storage options:

OMS Shared File System

An OMS Shared File System location is required to be shared (or mounted) across all the Oracle Management Server (OMS) hosts. This option is ideal for UNIX systems.

Note:

For single OMS environments, you can configure the Software Library either on the host where the OMS is running, or in a shared location. However, in future, if you plan to expand the single OMS setup to a multiple OMS setup, then local file system path is not recommended.

For multiple OMS environments, Oracle recommends you to configure the Software Library in a non-local, shared file system path that is accessible to all Oracle Management Servers in the environment. If you are implementing multiple management servers for high availability you should also make the Software Library file system highly available. Besides accessibility and availability, it is important to ensure that there is enough space available for the storage of software binaries, and associated scripts for the entities that you want to create and store

OMS Agent File System

To use OMS Agent Filesystem storage option, ensure that you have a preferred, or a named credential for the OMS host. Click Change Credential to change the associated credential to be used to access this location. Ensure that credential associated with the location is viewable by all Software Library designers, so that other designers can upload, and stage the files associated with any entity.

Note:

An OMS Agent File System location should be accessible to the agent running on the host machine where the OMS is deployed, and is recommended for multiple OMS setup on Windows

11.4.2 Referenced File Location

Referenced File Locations are locations that allow you to leverage the organization's existing IT infrastructure (like file servers, web servers, or storage systems) for sourcing software binaries and scripts. Such locations allow entities to refer to files without having to upload them explicitly to a Software Library storage.

Referenced File Locations support three storage options:

  • HTTP: An HTTP storage location represents a base URL which acts as the source of files that can be referenced.

    For example, the base URL http://my.files.com/scripts could be configured as an HTTP location for sourcing files such as http://my.files.com/scripts/perl/installMyDB.pl or http://my.files.com/scripts/linux/stopMyDB.sh.

  • NFS: An NFS storage location represents an exported file system directory on a server. The server need not be an Enterprise Manager host target.

    For example, the directory /exported/scripts is exported on server my.file.server could be configured as an NFS location for sourcing files such as /exported/scripts/generic/installMyDB.pl or /exported/scripts/linux/stopMyDB.sh once mounted on a target host file system.

  • Agent: An Agent storage location is similar to the OMS Agent File System option, but can be any host monitored by an Enterprise Manager Agent. The Agent can be configured to serve the files located on that host.

    For example, the directory /u01/binaries on the Enterprise Manager Host my.em.file.server could be configured as an Agent location for sourcing files such as /u01/binaries/rpms/myCustomDB.rpm or /u01/binaries/templates/myTemplate.tar.gz.

    These locations require a named credential to be associated which will be used to access the files from the base location on the host through the Enterprise Manager Agent.

11.5 Prerequisites for Configuring Software Library

To administer the different storage types, and to configure software library, keep the following points in mind:

11.6 Configuring Software Library Storage Location

System Administrators are responsible for configuring a storage location. Only after the storage location is configured, you can start uploading the entity files.

You can configure the Software Library in one of the following locations:

Note:

Starting with Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 12c Release 2 (12.1.0.2), in addition to using the GUI as described in this section, you can alternatively use the command line interface tool to Configure the Software Library. To do so, refer to Oracle Enterprise Manager Lifecycle Management Administrator's Guide.

11.6.1 Configuring an OMS Shared Filesystem Location

To configure an OMS Shared File System storage location that can be used for uploading Software Library entity files, perform the following steps:

  1. From the Setup menu, select Provisioning and Patching, then select Software Library.

  2. On Software Library: Administration page, select OMS Shared Filesystem.

  3. To add a new OMS Shared File System, click +Add.

  4. In the Add OMS Shared File System location dialog box, provide a unique name, and location on the OMS host, where you want to set up the upload location.

    Add OMS Shared Filesystem Location

    Ensure that the configured storage location is a shared location that is accessible by all the OMS instances. For a Multi OMS setup, set the Normal Preferred Credentials for all the OMS(s).

    When you configure an upload location for the first time, a metadata registration job is submitted which imports all the metadata information of all the installed plug-ins from the Oracle home of the OMS.

    To track the progress of the job, from Enterprise menu, select Job, and then click Activity. On the Job Activity Page, in the Advanced Search region, enter the name of the job, choose Targetless as the Target Type, and then click Search. Typically, the name of the job starts with SWLIBREGISTERMETADATA_*.

    If the Import job fails, see Section 11.10 for information on Re-importing metadata for Oracle-owned files.

  5. Click OK to create a new entry for the storage location in the table, with details like Name, Location, Host, Status, and Host Credentials.

    In addition to this, you can click Associated Entities to view or search the entities present in the selected upload location.

11.6.2 Configuring an OMS Agent Filesystem Location

To configure an OMS Agent location, perform the following steps:

  1. From the Setup menu, select Provisioning and Patching, then select Software Library.

  2. On the Software Library: Administration page, select OMS Agent Filesystem.

  3. Click +Add, in the Add OMS Agent File System Location dialog box, enter the following details:

    Add OMS Agent Filesystem Location
    1. In the Name field, enter a unique name for the storage.

    2. In the Host field, click the magnifier icon. From the Search and Select: Hosts dialog box, select a host where the OMS is running, and click Select.

      For example, xyz.acme.com

    3. In the Location field, click the magnifier icon. In the Remote File Browser dialog box, click Login As to log into the host machine with either Preferred, Named or New credentials.

      Note:

      For a user to access and leverage an OMS Agent Filesystem upload location successfully, the owner of the Named Credential (basically, the credential used to connect to the host machine), must grant a View Privilege on the credential chosen to all the Administrators (or users) accessing this OMS Agent Filesystem location.

      For more information about granting privileges on a Named Credential, refer to Oracle Enterprise Manager Lifecycle Management Administrator's Guide.

      Navigate to the location on the host where you want to create the Agent File System, and click OK.

      The selected credential is saved along with the host and selected file system path. The saved credential is used to upload files and stage the uploaded files to a host target as part of some provisioning or patching activity.

      Note: The administrator configuring the Software Library must grant view privilege (at least) on the credential chosen to all designers uploading or staging the files to or from this location.

  4. Click OK to create a new entry for the storage location in the table, with details like Name, Location, Host, Status, and Host Credentials.

    In addition to this, you can click Associated Entities to view or search the entities present in the selected upload location.

These newly configured OMS Agent locations are now available for storing entity files.

11.6.3 Configuring a Referenced File Location

To configure storage location that can be used for referring to files from the Software Library entities, perform the following steps:

  1. From the Setup menu, select Provisioning and Patching, then select Software Library.

  2. On the Software Library: Administration page, click Referenced File Locations tab.

  3. To add an HTTP location that can be accessed through a HTTP URL, select HTTP from the Storage Type list and click +Add.

    Add Http Location

    In the Add HTTP Location dialog box, enter a unique name and a HTTP location for the storage that you want to reference, and click OK.

    A new entry for the storage location is created, with details like Name, Location, and Status.

  4. To add an NFS shared location, select NFS from the Storage Type list and click +Add.

    Add NFS Location

    In the Add NFS Location dialog box, do the following:

    1. Enter a unique name in the Name field for the storage.

    2. In NFS server field, provide a fully qualified domain name or the IP address of the hosted machine that has NFS services running on them.

    3. In the Location field, provide the shared location or directory path on the NFS server to define a storage location, then click OK.

    A new entry for the storage location is created in the table, with details like Name, Location, and Status.

    Note:

    While creating a procedure, if you have a component step or a directive step that refers to an NFS file location, then you must ensure that you set the preferred privileged credentials for the target host before the procedure is submitted for execution.
  5. To add an Agent location that has read-only privileges set on it, select Agent from the Storage Type list and click +Add.

    Add OMS Agent Location

    In the Add Agent Location dialog box, enter the following details:

    1. In the Name field, enter a unique name for the storage.

    2. In the Host field, click the magnifier icon to select a target from the list available.

      For example, xyz.company.com

    3. In the Location field, click Login As to select the credentials and browse the previously selected host.

      The credential selected, either Preferred, Named or New, is saved along with the host and selected file system path. The saved credential is used for staging the files to a host target as part of some provisioning or patching activity.

      Note: The administrator configuring the Software Library must grant view privilege (at least) on the credential chosen to all designers uploading or staging the files to or from this location.

Note: When you create a new entity, these newly configured Referenced File Locations are available as storage options.

11.7 Configuring Software Library on a Multi-OMS System

Oracle recommends that you configure each OMS Shared Storage Location to use a shared or mounted file system path. Doing this will ensure that this newly configured location remains accessible from any OMS host as and when they are added.

Note:

Starting with Enterprise Manager 12c, you can use the EM CLI utility for migrating files across upload locations of different storage types. Additionally, the EM CLI verb (remove_swlib_storage_location) also supports migration from an OMS Shared storage location to an OMS Agent storage location, and vice versa. This can be performed only through the command line using EM CLI utility, you can not perform the same task using the Cloud Control UI.

Note:

On Windows, Oracle recommends that you configure the OMS Agent Storage Location as the default upload file storage. All upload and stage requests for the files will happen through the Management Agent monitoring the OMS host.

The OMS Agent File System storage should be used only for exceptional cases like multi-OMS setup on Windows. For multi-OMS setup in Windows, it is recommended to have OCFS2 cluster file system on the OMS hosts, and an OMS Shared File System storage location configured.

If however, you have configured the OMS Shared storage location to use a local file system path, then you must migrate it to another OMS Shared Storage Location that uses a shared or mounted path. To do so, follow these steps:

  1. In Cloud Control, from Setup menu, select Provisioning and Patching, then select Software Library.

  2. On the Software Library Administration page, add a new OMS Shared storage location by specifying a name (for example: NewShared), and a shared file system path.

  3. On successful completion, select the location you want to migrate, (For example: OldNonShared), and click Migrate and Remove.

  4. In the popup dialog box, select the new OMS Shared storage location (NewShared) as the destination location for the migration of files.

  5. Click Remove to submit a job, which on successful completion deletes the storage location entry from the table.

11.8 Using Software Library Entities

To access the Software Library Home Page, in Cloud Control, from the Enterprise menu, select Provisioning and Patching and then, click Software Library. Software Library is a repository that stores certified software binaries such as software patches, virtual appliance images, reference gold images, application software and their associated directive scripts, generally referred to as Entities. Accesses and privileges on these entities are decided by the Super Administrators or the owner of the entity.

Entities can broadly be classified as:

Types Description
Oracle-owned Entities These entities are available by default on the Software Library Home page, once the Software Library is configured. In the following graphic, all the entities that are owned by Oracle, qualify as Oracle-owned entities, and all the folders that appear with a lock icon against them are Oracle-owned folders like Application Server Provisioning, Bare Metal Provisioning, Cloud, and so on.
Custom Entities These entities are created by the Software Library users. In the following graphic, entities like Components, Directives, Images, Network, and so on are the User-owned entities.

Surrounding text describes folder_organization.gif.

Note:

All Oracle-owned folders (and entities) are available on the Software Library Home page by default. The Oracle-owned folders have a read-only privilege, so you cannot select these folders to create an entity. You must create a custom folder to place your entities in them.

A number of lifecycle management tasks like patching and provisioning deployment procedures make use of the entities available in Software Library to accomplish the desired goal. Here is a pictorial representation of how a Provisioning Deployment Procedure and a Patching Deployment Procedure makes use of the entities available in the Software Library:

Figure 11-3 Using Software Library Entities for Provisioning and Patching Tasks

Surrounding text describes Figure 11-3 .

11.9 Tasks Performed Using the Software Library Home Page

From the Software Library Home page, you can do the following:

11.9.1 Organizing Entities

Only designers who have the privilege to create any Software Library entity, can create folders.

Note:

Starting with Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 12c Release 2 (12.1.0.2), in addition to using the GUI as described in this section, you can alternatively use the command line interface tool to Create Folders. To do so, refer to Oracle Enterprise Manager Lifecycle Management Administrator's Guide.

To create a custom folder, perform the following steps:

  1. From the Enterprise menu, select Provisioning and Patching, then select Software Library.

  2. On the Software Library Home page, from Actions menu, click Create Folder to create a custom folder of your own.

    The custom folder can contain User-owned folders, entities, and customized entities created by using the Create Like option.

  3. In the Create Folder dialog box, enter a unique name for the folder. Also, select the parent folder in which you want to create this new custom folder and click Save.

    For example, if the root folder is Software Library and you created a custom folder in it called Cloud12gTest, then the Parent Folder field is populated as follows: /Software Library/Cloud12gTest.

    Note: Only the owner of the folder or the Super Administrator has the privilege to delete the folder, nobody else can.

11.9.2 Creating Entities

From the Software Library Home page, you can create the following entities:

Note:

Starting with Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 12c Release 2 (12.1.0.2), in addition to using the GUI as described in this section, you can alternatively use the command line interface tool to Create Entities. To do so, refer to Oracle Enterprise Manager Lifecycle Management Administrator's Guide.

11.9.2.1 Creating Generic Components

To create a generic component from the Software Library Home page, perform the following steps:

  1. From the Enterprise menu, select Provisioning and Patching, then select Software Library.

  2. On the Software Library Home page, select a custom folder that is not owned by Oracle.

    Note: You cannot create a generic component in an Oracle Owned Folder. To create a custom folder, see Section 11.9.1.

  3. From the Actions menu, select Create Entity and click Component. Alternately, right click the custom folder, and from the menu, select Create Entity and click Component.

  4. From the Create Entity: Component dialog box, select Generic Component and click Continue.

    Enterprise Manager Cloud Control displays the Create Generic Component: Describe page.

  5. On the Describe page, enter the Name, Description, and Other Attributes that describe the entity.

    Note: The component name must be unique to the parent folder that it resides in. Sometime even when you enter a unique name, it may report a conflict, this is because there could be an entity with the same name in the folder that is not visible to you, as you do not have view privilege on it.

    Click +Add to attach files that describe the entity better like readme, collateral, licensing, and so on. Ensure that the file size is less than 2 MB.

    In the Notes field, include information related to the entity like changes being made to the entity or modification history that you want to track.

  6. On the Configure page, you can customize the generic component that you are creating by adding some new properties or updating the existing properties of the component.

    Note: Select Shared Type to reuse the component property. Shared Type can be stored as a template, which can be used for creating different and more complicated top level types.

    To add a new property, do the following, and click Next:

    1. Select Top Level Type or Shared Type, and click Add.

    2. Enter a unique name for the property. Depending on the property type selected, enter an initial or default value for the property.

    3. To add a constraint, specify the Minimum or Maximum value for the selected property type, and click Add Constraint.

      The Configured Constraints table lists all the constraints added. To remove a particular constraint from the property, select the property and click Remove.

  7. On the Select Files page, you can select one or more files to be associated with the entity. Select one of the following options:

    • Upload Files: If you want to upload some entity files from the local file system or the agent machine to the selected destination location.

      To select the destination location, in the Specify Destination section, in the Upload Location field, click the magnifier icon to select one of the following options:

      • OMS Shared FileSystem

      • OMS Agent FileSystem

      The corresponding Storage Type and Location Path of the selected location is populated.

      Note:

      To upload the files, the status of the storage location to which the files are to be uploaded should be Active.

      If you select OMS Agent Filesystem location, then ensure that you have the necessary privileges to access the location

      In the Specify Source section, enter the location from where the files are being sourced, these locations can either be local file system or a remote file system monitored by the Management Agent. Select one of the following options for File Source:,:

      • If you select Local Machine, and click Add, the Add File dialog box appears. Click Browse to select the entity file from the source location, and give a unique name, and click OK.

        You can upload the files to any of the configured storage locations available in OMS Shared Filesystem location or OMS Agent Filesystem location

      • If you select Agent Machine, select the name of the host machine from where you want to pick up the entity files. Click +Add and log into the host machine with the desired credentials. For more information about the different credential types and their setup, see Oracle Enterprise Manager Lifecycle Management Guide.

        Once you log into the host machine, browse to the location where the files to be uploaded are present. You can upload the files to any of the configured storage locations available in OMS Shared Filesystem location or OMS Agent Filesystem location.

    • Refer Files: If you select the Refer Files option, you only need to enter the source location details, since you are not technically uploading anything to the Software Library. In the Specify Source section, select from HTTP, NFS, or Agent Storage types, and click OK. The corresponding Storage Type and Location Path of the selected location is populated.

      Click +Add to reference the entity present at the selected Referenced File Location. In the Add Referenced File dialog box, enter a relative path to the file under Base Location. Click Stage As to organize the file in a temporary stage location with a unique name.

      For details about each of these storage options, see Section 11.6.3

  8. On the Set Directives page, click Choose Directives to associate a component with one or more directives. Click Next.

  9. On the Review page, review all the details, and click Finish to create the component and upload it on the Software Library.

11.9.2.2 Creating Directives

Directives are entities in the Software Library that represent a set of instructions to be performed. These are constructs used to associate scripts with software components and images. These scripts contain directions on how to interpret and process the contents of a particular component or an image.

To create a directive from a Software Library Home page, perform the following steps:

  1. From the Enterprise menu, select Provisioning and Patching, then select Software Library.

  2. On the Software Library Home page, select a custom folder that is not owned by Oracle.

    Note: You cannot create a generic component in an Oracle Owned Folder. To create a custom folder, see Section 11.9.1.

  3. From Actions menu, select Create Entity and click Directive. Enterprise Manager Cloud Control displays the Create Entity: Directives wizard.

  4. On the Describe page, enter the Name, Description, and Other Attributes that describe the entity.

    Note: The component name must be unique to the parent folder that it resides in. Sometime even when you enter a unique name, and it may report a conflict, this is because there could be an entity with the same name in the folder that is not visible to you, as you do not have view privilege on it.

    Click +Add to attach files that describe the entity better like readme, collateral, licensing, and so on. Ensure that the file size is less than 2 MB.

    In the Notes field, include information related to the entity like changes being made to the entity or modification history that you want to track.

  5. On the Configure page, specify the command line arguments that must be passed to the directive to configure it. This command provides the parameters required to execute the directive.

    To add the command line arguments or parameters, click Add.

    In the Add Command Line Arguments dialog box, enter the values in the following fields:

    • Argument Prefix, is a switch or a constant command line argument.

      The Argument Prefix eliminates the error-prone task of manually specifying the order of the parameter executions in a given directive. This is specially useful when a directive is made of multiple parameters.

      Oracle recommends that you create command line arguments using an Argument Prefix.

    • Property Name, is the name of the property, that must be a string value.

    • Argument Suffix, is the text that must follow the command line property.

      Though the suffix is rarely used, it determines how the parameters must be executed, based on the suffix value.

    For example, if the command line argument you want to pass is as follows:

    ./test.sh -user={username}

    Then,

    Argument Prefix is: –user

    Property Name is: username

    All the parameters added appear in the order of addition against the Command Line field.

    To change the order of the parameter or edit any property of an existing parameter, click Edit.

    To remove any of the parameters, click Remove.

    In the Configuration Properties section, select either Bash or Perl as defined in the script.

    Select Run Privileged to run the script with root privileges.

  6. On the Select Files page, you can select one or more files to be associated with the entity. Select one of the following options:

    • Upload Files: If you want to upload some entity files from the local file system or the agent machine to the selected destination location.

      To select the destination location, in the Specify Destination section, in the Upload Location field, click the magnifier icon to select one of the following options:

      • OMS Shared FileSystem

      • OMS Agent FileSystem

      The corresponding Storage Type and Location Path of the selected location is populated.

      Note:

      To upload the files, the status of the storage location to which the files are to be uploaded should be Active.

      If you select OMS Agent Filesystem location, then ensure that you have the necessary privileges to access the location

      In the Specify Source section, enter the location from where the files are being sourced, these locations can either be local file system or a remote file system monitored by the Management Agent. Select one of the following options for File Source:,:

      • If you select Local Machine, and click Add, the Add File dialog box appears. Click Browse to select the entity file from the source location, and give a unique name, and click OK.

        You can upload the files to any of the configured storage locations available in OMS Shared Filesystem location or OMS Agent Filesystem location

      • If you select Agent Machine, select the name of the host machine from where you want to pick up the entity files. Click +Add and log into the host machine with the desired credentials. For more information about the different credential types and their setup, see Oracle Enterprise Manager Lifecycle Management Guide.

        Once you log into the host machine, browse to the location where the files to be uploaded are present. You can upload the files to any of the configured storage locations available in OMS Shared Filesystem location or OMS Agent Filesystem location.

    • Refer Files: If you select the Refer Files option, you only need to enter the source location details, since you are not technically uploading anything to the Software Library. In the Specify Source section, select from HTTP, NFS, or Agent Storage types, and click OK. The corresponding Storage Type and Location Path of the selected location is populated.

      Click +Add to reference the entity present at the selected Referenced File Location. In the Add Referenced File dialog box, enter a relative path to the file under Base Location. Click Stage As to organize the file in a temporary stage location with a unique name.

      For details about each of these storage options, see Section 11.6.3

  7. On the Review page, review all the details, and click Finish to create the component and upload it on the Software Library.

11.9.3 Customizing Entities

You cannot edit an entity present in an Oracle owned folder. However, to edit an Oracle-owned entity, you can make a copy of the entity and store it in a custom folder. Since you now have full access on the entity, you can customize the entity based on your requirement and may even choose to grant other users access to this entity.

To create a custom entity from an Oracle owned entity, perform the following steps:

  1. From the Enterprise menu, select Provisioning and Patching, then select Software Library.

  2. On the Software Library Home page, select an entity or alternately, search and select an entity.

    For more information about searching for an entity, see Section 11.9.4.9.

  3. From Actions menu, select Create Like.

  4. On the Create Like: <Entity Name> dialog box, enter a name that is unique to the parent folder and a description for the entity.

    By default, the root directory Software Library is preselected in the Parent Folder field.

    To change the parent folder and organize the entities, click Change Parent Folder. and select the desired folder.

  5. Click OK to apply the changes.

    The new entity appears in the Entities table, under the selected parent folder.

    You as the owner have all the privileges on the entity, and can update the properties as per your requirement.

    To update the properties of the entity, see Section 11.9.4.8.

For more information on Oracle Owned Entities and User Owned Entities, see Section 11.8.

11.9.4 Managing Entities

From the Software Library Home page you can perform the following maintenance tasks on the existing entities:

Note:

Starting with Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 12c Release 2 (12.1.0.2), you can either use the GUI or use the command line interface tool for performing all the tasks listed in Table 11-3.

11.9.4.1 Accessing Software Library Home Page

To access the Software Library Home page, from the Enterprise menu, select Provisioning and Patching, then select Software Library.

11.9.4.2 Accessing Software Library Administration Page

To access the Software Library Administration page, from the Setup menu, select Provisioning and Patching, then select Software Library.

11.9.4.3 Granting or Revoking Privileges

An Enterprise Manager user requires, at the very least, a view privilege on an entity for the entity to be visible on the Software Library Home. The owner or super administrator can choose to grant additional privileges like edit (Update notion) or manage (or full) or at a later point of time, revoke the previously granted privilege.

To grant or revoke privileges, perform the following steps:

  1. From the Enterprise menu, select Provisioning and Patching, then select Software Library.

  2. To grant or revoke fine-grained privileges to the other users on any entity that you own, select the custom entity and from Actions menu, click Grant/Revoke Privileges.

  3. On Grant/Revoke Privileges on: <entity_name> window, you can either grant or revoke Software Library privileges depending on the users roles and responsibilities in the organization.

    Granting Privileges: To grant one or more new privileges, click +Add and search for the users. You can grant them one of the following privileges on the entity you own:

    • View Software Library Entity: This is normally an operator privilege where the user can only view the entity on the Software Library Home. The user cannot edit or manage the entity. All the Oracle owned entities can be viewed by all Enterprise Manager users.

    • Edit Software Library Entity: This is a designer privilege where a user has Create, Update, and Edit privileges on the entity.

    • Manage Software Library Entity: This is a super-administrator privilege where the user has complete access on the entity. With this privilege, you can grant or revoke accesses on this entity to other users, or delete the entity.

    Revoking Privileges: To revoke previously granted privileges, select the user and click Remove.

  4. Click Update to apply the selected grants on the entity.

11.9.4.4 Moving Entities

To move all the revisions of an entity from one folder to another, do the following:

  1. From the Enterprise menu, select Provisioning and Patching, then select Software Library.

  2. On the Software Library Home page, select an entity or alternately, search and select an entity.

    For more information about searching for an entity, see Section 11.9.4.9.

  3. From the Actions menu, click Move Entity and accept the confirmation.

  4. From the Move Entity dialog box, select the destination folder for the entities and click Set New Parent Folder.

    Note: Ensure that the source and the destination folders are not owned by Oracle, as you cannot move or edit them.

11.9.4.5 Changing Entity Maturity

When an entity is created from the Enterprise Manager Home, it is present in an Untested state. It is the responsibility of a designer to test the entity, and change the maturity level based on the test result.

To manage the lifecycle and indicate the quality (maturity level) of an entity, perform the following steps:

  1. From the Enterprise menu, select Provisioning and Patching, then select Software Library.

  2. On the Software Library Home page, select an entity or alternately, search and select an entity.

    For more information about searching for an entity, see Section 11.9.4.9.

  3. From the Actions menu, click Change Maturity to change the maturity value an entity after testing.

For example, an Oracle Database Clone component would be tested by selecting it in a deployment procedure interview flow that provisions a database. Once the entity is tested, the designer can change the maturity of the entity to either Beta or Production based on test results. Only when the entity is marked with Production level, the Operator can use it.

11.9.4.6 Adding Notes to Entities

To log information about the changes or updates made to an existing entity, perform the following steps:

  1. From the Enterprise menu, select Provisioning and Patching, then select Software Library.

  2. On the Software Library Home page, select an entity or alternately, search and select an entity.

    For more information about searching for an entity, see Section 11.9.4.9.

  3. From Actions menu, click Notes to include any important information related to the entity. You can also add notes while editing an entity.

    The most recent note appears on top of the table, and the older notes appear below.

  4. After updating the details, click Finish to submit the changes, and return to the Software Library Home page.

11.9.4.7 Adding Attachments to Entities

To add or upload files that are typically documents (like README, installation, configuration) related to the software the entity represents, perform the following steps:

  1. From the Enterprise menu, select Provisioning and Patching, then select Software Library.

  2. On the Software Library Home page, select an entity or alternately, search and select an entity.

    For more information about searching for an entity, see Section 11.9.4.9.

  3. From Actions menu, click Attachments to include one or more files related to the entity. These files contain some important information about the entity. You can also attach files while editing an entity.

    For example, you can attach a readme file to a patch or a component, attach a test script to a directive and so on. However, you must ensure that the file size of each attachment is not more than 2 MB.

  4. Click Finish to submit the changes, and return to the Software Library Home page.

11.9.4.8 Viewing, Editing, and Deleting Entities

To view, edit, or delete the details of an entity, perform the following steps:

  1. From the Enterprise menu, select Provisioning and Patching, then select Software Library.

  2. On the Software Library Home page, select an entity or alternately, search and select an entity.

    For more information about searching for an entity, see Section 11.9.4.9.

  3. To manage an existing entity, select the entity and perform any of the following functions:

    • View: Click View icon on the table to view the details of an entity. You cannot update the properties of the entity from here.

    • Edit: Click Edit icon on the table to update the properties of an entity.

      If you are satisfied with the details, click Save and Upload to make the changes available on the Software Library Home page.

    • Delete: Click Delete icon to remove the entity from the Software Library Home page.

      Note: By deleting an entity, the entity is no longer available for selection, viewing, or editing, and will not be displayed on the Software Library Home page. However, the entity continues to exist in the repository and the associated files, if uploaded, continue to exist in the respective disk storage. To delete the entity completely from the repository and the associated files from the file system, you must purge the deleted entities from the administration page. The purge job not only deletes the files associated with the deleted entity, but removes the deleted entities itself from the repository tables. For more information about how to purge the deleted entities from the storage location, see Section 11.10.4

11.9.4.9 Searching Entities

To search for an entity, perform the following steps:

  1. From the Enterprise menu, select Provisioning and Patching, then select Software Library.

  2. To search for an entity, perform one of the following operations:

    1. Find: On the Software Library Home page, you can search for an entity by its Name, Description, or Type. Select the search category, enter the desired value and then click the arrow icon.

      On clicking the arrow icon, the result page displays a number of matching results, and allows you to toggle between the result rows by clicking the up and down arrows.

    2. Search: To perform a detailed search for an entity, click Search. The search option, by default, allows you to search by Name, Description, Maturity, Status, Type, File Name and Revision to retrieve a more granular search result.

      Note: If you choose entities that have associated subtypes (like Components), then the page is refreshed with Subtype as an additional search category.

      Specify appropriate values in All or Any of the search fields, and click Search.

      To add more search parameters, in the Advanced Search section, click Add Fields menu and, select the desired search fields. The selected fields appear in the Advanced Search section as new search parameters. This new search feature enables you to refine your search, and drill down to the most accurate and desired search result.

      To revert to the simple search view, click Close Search.

11.9.4.10 Exporting Entities

To export selected entities, perform the following steps:

  1. From the Enterprise menu, select Provisioning and Patching, then select Software Library.

  2. On the Software Library Home page, from the Actions menu, click Export to export entities present in the Software Library as a Provisioning Archive (PAR) file.

    The PAR file can be used for recreating the entities on an Enterprise Manager with a different repository.

  3. On the Export Software Library Entities page, do the following:

    • Click +Add to search and select an entity.

    • In Directory Location, enter a directory location accessible to OMS for storing the generated PAR files.

    • In PAR File, enter the name of the PAR file with a .par extension generated during export.

    • To encrypt and securely store all the secret property values of the PAR file being exported, enter a value in the Oracle Wallet Password field.

      Note: Specify the same password for importing this PAR file. For more information on importing, see Section 11.9.4.11.

    • Select Exclude Associated Files, to exclude the files, binaries, or scripts associated with an entity, from being exported.

    For example, let us consider that you have a separate test and production environment and want to import only the entities that have been tested and certified in the test environment into production. The entities exported from the test system are made available as a Provisioning Archive (PAR) file. You can now choose to import this PAR file into the production system (which is identical to the test system) and use the tested entities.

  4. Click Submit to submit an export job. Once the job runs successfully, the selected entities from the Software Library are exported as a PAR file.

Note:

Provisioning Archive Files that were exported from any Enterprise Manager version prior to 12c can not be imported into Enterprise Manager 12c.

11.9.4.11 Importing Entities

To import PAR (Provisioning Archive) files into the Software Library or deploy them to an OMS, perform the following steps:

  1. From the Enterprise menu, select Provisioning and Patching, then select Software Library.

  2. On the Software Library Home page, from Actions menu, click Import to import the PAR files.

  3. On the Import Software Library Entities page, specify the PAR File to be imported.

    To import the PAR file successfully, in the Password field, enter the same password that was set on the PAR file to secure the secret property values during export.

    For example, let us consider that you have a separate test and production environment and want to import only the entities that have been tested and certified in the test environment into production. The entities exported from the test system are made available as a Provisioning Archive (PAR) file. You can now choose to import this PAR file into the production system (which is identical to the test system) and use the tested entities.

  4. If a revision of the entity being imported already exists in Software Library, then you can overwrite the existing entity with a newer revision during import by selecting Force New Revision.

    Note: If a revision of the entity being imported already exists in the repository, and you do not select the Force New Revision option, then import process fails.

  5. Click Submit to submit an import job. On successful completion of the job, the PAR files are imported into the Software Library.

Note:

Provisioning Archive Files that were exported from any Enterprise Manager version prior to 12c can not be imported into Enterprise Manager 12c.

11.9.4.12 Staging Files Associated With an Entity

For transferring the files associated with an entity to a specific target host follow the steps outlined in this section.

Prerequisites

Ensure that you meet the following prerequisites before staging the files associated with an entity:

  1. Only hosts that are monitored by the Enterprise Manager can be specified as the destination for staging the files associated with an entity.

  2. Only files that have been successfully uploaded to the entity (hence, in Ready status) can be selected for staging.

    Note:

    To verify if the entity has any files in the Ready state, follow these steps:
    1. Select the entity, and click View.

    2. On the View Entity page, select Select Files tab, to verify the files associated with the entity.

    3. Unless there is at least one file with a Ready status, you cannot proceed with the staging process.

  3. Only users with Create Job Privileges can stage the files associated with an entity.

  4. If the source files to be staged are on NFS, then the credentials used for browsing the destination target should have root permissions to be able to mount the NFS location.

Staging Procedure

Log in to Enterprise Manager Cloud Control with designer privileges, and perform the following steps:

  1. From the Enterprise menu, select Provisioning and Patching, then select Software Library.

  2. Select the entity, and from Actions menu, select Stage Entity.

  3. On the Stage Entity page, the entity details, the source upload location, and the selected entity files are displayed.

    You can optionally select the Overwrite files on the staging location to overwrite an existing version of the same file. If not, ignore this option and proceed.

  4. In the Staging Destination section, select the destination host target (Management Agent) that is reporting to the OMS, where you want to stage these entity files.

    To select a location on the Management Agent target to host the files, you must log in to the host target and select a location to host the files.

  5. Click Submit.

  6. To verify the status of the submitted job, from Enterprise menu, select Job, then click Activity.

11.10 Maintaining Software Library

To maintain the health and proper functionality of the Software Library, the administrator who configured the Software Library, or the Designer who has administration access on it must perform the tasks listed here.

This section includes:

11.10.1 Periodic Maintenance Tasks

Periodically, the Administrator must perform the following tasks for proper functioning of the Software Library:

  • Refresh the Software Library regularly to compute the free and used disk space.

  • Purge deleted entities to conserve disk space. To do so, see Section 11.10.4.

  • Check accessibility of the configured Software Library locations to ensure that they are accessible.

11.10.2 Re-Importing Oracle Owned Entity Files

Note:

Re-importing metadata applies only to the Oracle owned files, which means all the entity files that ship with the Enterprise Manager product by default. The metadata of User owned entity files cannot be recovered through the Re-import functionality.

Re-Importing the metadata of Oracle owned entity files is not a periodic activity. Re-import helps to recover the metadata files in one of the following situations:

  • If you delete the file system location where the metadata was imported. For example, /scratch/swlib1/

  • If the import job submitted while creating the first upload location fails.

To re-import the metadata of Oracle owned files, do the following:

  1. In Cloud Control, from Setup menu, select Provisioning and Patching, and then click Software Library.

  2. On the Software Library Administration page, in the Upload File Location tab, from Actions menu, select Re-Import Metadata option to submit a job that re-initiates the re-import process.

11.10.3 Deleting Software Library Storage Location

Software Library Storage Administrators have the required privileges to delete a storage location. Before removing a storage location, you are prompted to choose an alternate location where the files will be migrated. On selecting an alternate location, a migration job is submitted, and the location is marked Inactive. After successful migration of the entity files to the new location, the location configuration is deleted.

Note:

To remove a location from OMS Agent File System or Referenced Agent File System storage, you must have a view privilege on the credentials for the location being removed, and the alternate location where the files are migrated.

To delete a configured storage location, perform the following steps:

  1. In Cloud Control, from Setup menu, select Provisioning and Patching, then select Software Library.

  2. On the Software Library Administration page, select the storage location, and click Migrate and Remove.

  3. In the confirmation dialog box, click Remove to submit a job, which on successful completion deletes the storage entry from the table.

Note:

If you have only one Upload File storage location, either OMS Shared File System or OMS Agent File System, you cannot delete this location. Only if there are more than one configured storage location, the Migrate and Remove option is enabled. Also, the migration works only when the same storage type is being used. For example, you cannot migrate from OMS Shared Filesystem (upload) storage location to OMS Agent storage location using Enterprise Manager UI.

For migrating files across upload locations of different storage types, you must use the Enterprise Manager Command Line option. For example, you can migrate an OMS Shared Filesystem storage location to an OMS Agent Filesystem storage location. Even the reverse operation is supported using EM CLI. However, note that this type of migration is supported specifically for "upload" storage types, and is not applicable for the reference storage types.

To migrate the files from one upload location to another, you can use the EM CLI verb emcli remove_swlib_storage_location. For more information about this command, see Section 11.3.

11.10.4 Purging Deleted Entity Files

To purge the deleted entities from all the configured Agent Storage locations, you can run a purge job. Starting with Enterprise Manager 12c the purge job can be scheduled. To do so follow these steps:

  1. In Cloud Control, from Setup menu, select Provisioning and Patching, then select Software Library.

  2. On the Software Library Administration page, select the storage location, and from the Actions menu select Purge. The following dialog box appears where you can schedule the purge job:

    Surrounding text describes purge.gif.
  3. Enter all the details and click OK to submit the job, on successful completion of the job all the deleted entities are removed from the storage location.

11.10.5 Backing Up Software Library

For information about backing up your Software Library, see Chapter 28, "Backing Up and Recovering Enterprise Manager".